losing weight

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nick8

Member Since 2019
Update since my last thread. My cat 11 yr old himalayan got diabetes a couple months ago and lost a lot of weight. He was also admitted for couple days and was not eating at all. Treated with antibiotics for pancreatitis.

Right now the situation is that he's generally active, purrs, plays, etc. but is looking for me all the time.

The vet suggested 2 units of insulin mornign and evening after food.

We tried to stop the dry food but then he wont eat at all so he's on purina DM dry food and fancy feast chicken food. He eats a bit of both. I am not always able to give him insulin as I don't really know when he eats and I don't want to give it if he hasn't eaten. He's losing weight at about 0.1 lbs per day.

Should I give him insulin regardless if so how much and what times?
 
Are home testing? If a cat's glucose levels are not controlled, their body is not processing the food properly. That is why your cat is always hungry and losing weight.

We recommend testing your cat's glucose before every shot. First this will let you know if it is safe to give the insulin. it will also tell you how well the dose is working. You can test using any human glucose meter or a pet glucose meter. Most people use the human glucose meters because they are readily available and the strips are not as expensive. The pet glucose meters are more expensive and you are very limited on where you can buy the strips that will fit it.
 
Antibiotics usually won't help pancreatitis so I'm surprised they gave them to you - do they think there's an infection causing it? If your baby had blood work done, what was the white blood cell (WBC) count...?

Your baby is looking for you for security and comfort, so try to indulge the need to cuddle, etc. as much as you can.

Transitioning to the wet food can be REALLY hard, but there's a lot of posts, etc. here to help - I wish I had a bookmarked folder of them all but I don't, grrr, hope someone else does?

Here's a trick - put out the wet food, then crush some dry food, mix it into the wet (not a lot) - then crush some more to sprinkle on the top of the food. Hopefully the crushed dry will tempt the appetite and he'll eat all of it, wet included.

But never, EVER give insulin without knowing his blood sugar number and without him eating - otherwise it could throw him into hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) which is horrible.

My baby Fena, if she needed a shot based on her test, I'd wait until she ate at LEAST 2 tablespoons of food and kept it down for 10 minutes... can you tell us more about your babies health, how he acts, etc?
 
Hi Nick,

Diabetic cats don’t use food properly if they are unregulated. They often need more calories than same size non diabetic cat to keep from losing.

I know there is a lot to take in here. Can you please create a signature for your cat? Would help to know type of insulin, cats weight, etc. I think this was posted before, but would be helpful if you could make this for your cat.. Thanks:)

To set up your signature you just have to do the following:
  1. Click on your name in the upper right hand corner of the page (beside 'Inbox' and 'Alerts')
  2. Select "Signature" on the left hand side of the menu that drops down.
  3. Create your signature including the following information
    • Your cat's name and age
    • The date of diabetes diagnosis
    • The type of insulin you're using and the dosage
    • What glucose meter you're using (if you're testing your cat at home)
    • What food he/she eats
    • Any medication your cat takes as well as any pre-existing conditions they might have
    • Time Zone that you live in
  4. Click "Save"
The Purina DM dry is 18% carb which is still considered high for diabetes. I know Purina advertises the DM dry as low carb ( it is lower than other dry food) but it would be good to try and give more of the FF pate if he will eat it. Is the Fancy Feast chicken the pate? That is a good low carb choice. Also want to gradually reduce dry because removing dry totally will lower the blood sugar just by doing that. I know you were having trouble weaning from the dry. You could try crumbling a small amount of the dry on top of the Fancy Feast and using less and less until he is just on the Fancy Feast?

I know you said you don’t always know when he eats? Is there any way to monitor more closely?
 
Sig added.
Fancy Feast chicken the pate? yes

Problem is that he's eating very little right now.
We only see stuff in letter every 2-3 days.

Thanks
 
Candy&Company said:
Nick, how's things going with you and your baby now?
Click to expand...
Hi, it's difficult to say. he's still losing weight but we took him back to the vet who gave him mirtazapine and antiemetic and also did bloodwork to get updated numbers. so just waiting on those results.
His bg last checked was pretty low so the vet said he may have gone into remission but we'll know more after blood work.

Thank you
 
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